$9425 closer to being DEBT FREE!

[mikeedler]

My E46 touring, I bought it used, it was 8 months old. I honestly picked it up for half of the window sticker. can totally agree with not buying brand new and i never will. buying a 4 or 5 year old car, it's hitting the "it needs stuff point", a bit too old i think.

[RobertK]

My E46 touring, I bought it used, it was 8 months old. I honestly picked it up for half of the window sticker. can totally agree with not buying brand new and i never will. buying a 4 or 5 year old car, it's hitting the "it needs stuff point", a bit too old i think.

Nah.. you can buy a 10 year old Honda these days that MIGHT need a new timing belt and that's it. If you buy a car that's 4-5 years old that "needs stuff" already then you bought a VW or a Ford.

I don't like the fact that I bought a 02 Galant but I did buy it 2 years used and now it's 4 years old and all it's ever needed was 4 new spark plugs and a set of tires.

[marakka]

Yeah... you are right. new cars depreciate much more quickly than used cars. Its a fact. True. Whatever. That said I'd rather drive in my 15k new car thats going to be worth 6k in 4 years than my 6k car thats going to be worth 1k in 4 years. The 9k depreciate comes in the form of the 60,000 plus miles I'll put on it. And I'll put that on it with minimal maint thats not covered under warranty. I won't have to worry about my car note and then have to worry about where I'm going to get 600 bux to replace the timing belt.

I can afford a much more expensive car. But I can't afford the upkeep. I almost bought an e46. Payments weren't out of my range. I make inflated payments on my Neon that would be equal to what I would have paid if I would have financed an 05 325ci. But when it comes time to do a 40k service and I'm out 2500 bux..... I'd be better off selling my soul.

[Ryan Stewart]

I respect to getting debt free but I agree with Charlie. It might be a nice thing to have a reliable newer car when you have to get to work.

[Rigmaster]

Car payments suck, but it's become the American way, thanks to advertising and Keeping up with the Joneses mentality. I just don't get it. I used to work with a girl who was getting ready to make the last payment on her car. Instead of planning to save some $$$ for a while, she was already planning to buy a NEW car- she actually told me the following week that the dealer took her car in trade on a new one and "my payment only went up $120 a month"!!!!

Now, God bless the people who buy new cars every year or two, but I'll let them depreciate about 70% or more before I own one of them.....

Oh, and whoever said Mortgage payments suck, well- sending off that $$ every month might suck, but I'd much rather be paying a mortgage payment than a car payment (or RENT) - a house has a MUCH higher chance of appreciating in value than ANY car does. Besides that, you can still get a nice tax deduction for all that mortgage interest you pay every month. I bought a house 1 year out of college- didn't really know what I was doing, but my Mom helped alot (she's a real estate agent) and told me it was a great deal. The house is now paid off, and worth a whole lot more than what I paid for it.



Bret.

[Jarvis]

I'll hopefully be paying off my ~$55k in student loan dept within 3 years of graduating and going to STEP. It'll be aggravating watching all my peers who had everything handed to them spend all their spare cash on fun shit, but in the end I'll be more experienced and prepared for the future. Good luck to the rest of you doing the same. Loan payments suck balls.

[trashcop 80s 80s]

Debt sucks, but I love having my Frontier waiting on me when I need it. I doubt I will have any trouble from it for at least 100k. Its a nice feeling. I can start work on the e30, get pissed off/drunk, and not have to worry about finishing it for the next day. $230 a month for 3 years, its worth it totally.

[rs4pro3]

Here's to being 22 and having no debt I've thought many times about getting a loan for a newer car, but the e30 is reliable and with as many back up cars as I already have who needs one.

[RobertK]

Car reliability is a mentality... I read a Forbes magazine article that said that the two most expensive ways to own a vehicle were to buy one new and even worse.. leasing one.

After doing a price comparison of you you actually end up paying MORE for a new car "warranty" than you would pay to have the drivetrain rebuilt on the vehicle 3 times over.

An example being the 16k depreciation on the IS300 mentioned earlier in the thread within 2 years time. Just think of what you could fix on a car for $16k. 99% of the time the "reliability" convenience people find in a "new" car is all in their head and they end up paying more for the warranty than any worse case scenerio repair job.

Another interesting fact is the math on the car payment.. $300/month on a new car = -60% everytime sometimes more, but that same payment made to a growth stock mutual fund averaging 10-12% from age 18 to age 65 is about 3-4 million dollars. Hope you really like the car.

[AdironRider]

Yeah but you dont own the same car from 19-65. Kind of an unfair comparo to make.

Heres my addition, some people cant be bothered driving 20 year old foreign beaters around to their everyday jobs. I know that the industry Im planning on getting into, you gotta drive something that is going to impress your clientel. (I want to start my own financial planning firm) Face it, 99.9% of the cars on this board are not going to be anything more than a glorified beater. Things break, and while some of you might have 3 or 4 other beaters roaming around your property, some of us dont want to have our driveway look like Big Als rent a wreck. When I get out of school I plan on buying a tacoma pickup a couple years used for a small loan and have that as reliable transportation. Then I can do with the e30 as I please and not have to worry about it.

[Beej '86 325es]

But still.. 16k depreciation in 2-3 years is horrable for a Lexus.

heh, My parents bought a 2 year old Lexus LS430...loaded...some options that weren't even in the brochures, paid somewhere in the mid-$20k's for it. New, that was a $70k car.

[uofom3]

congrats! you are making decisions that will improve your life for years to come.

[RobertK]

Yeah but you dont own the same car from 19-65. Kind of an unfair comparo to make.

The comparison made is buying a new car on payments vs. buying used with cash you save.

If you don't have any payments and know how to save your money. Planning for purchases such as cars is not hard to do. You can save and buy nice cars and not have payments it's not as hard as some people think.

As an example, I know a doctor that still drives a 95 Q45 and a nice 90's model V12 convertable Jag. Neither were terribly expensive, enough to impress and get him to work reliably.

I know that the industry Im planning on getting into, you gotta drive something that is going to impress your clientel. (I want to start my own financial planning firm)

I know plenty of financial investors that do not drive expensive new cars. Mainly because smart experienced financial investors know that new fancy cars are not good investments. Furthermore, if you're clientel bases their investing decisions on what you drive then I would start looking for new clientel. Most of the people I've talked to look for investors who have an excellent track record and consequently those same investors drive mini vans and economy cars.

My best friend's dad is a senior investment planner for Prudential Financial and he drives a 1998 Ford Contour and his mom drives a 2000 Ford Windstar but their house is HUGE.

My advice would be to keep the E30 for fun and buy a 95-96 model 5 or 7 Series. You can get them at a good price with cash and still make a good impression without looking like you're driving a 10 year old beater.

[Bokes]

car payments suck. luckily mine are cheap. as well as my insurance. $1000/yr full coverage FTW.

[BimmerToad]

Car payments suck, but it's become the American way, thanks to advertising and Keeping up with the Joneses mentality. I just don't get it. I used to work with a girl who was getting ready to make the last payment on her car. Instead of planning to save some $$$ for a while, she was already planning to buy a NEW car- she actually told me the following week that the dealer took her car in trade on a new one and "my payment only went up $120 a month"!!!!

Now, God bless the people who buy new cars every year or two, but I'll let them depreciate about 70% or more before I own one of them.....

Amen. Seems like most people live off of future income, not current capital.